That snippet of Bach that you always hear at the beginning of A Minute with Miles is played by violinist Joanna Maurer. Joanna plays in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and for almost twenty years she’s been my colleague in the American Chamber Players. She’s a remarkable musician, and for all these years I’ve been inspired both by her beautiful violin playing and by what I might call her musical wisdom: her interpretive insights and her mastery of the craft of chamber music. And like all her colleagues, I’ve benefited from her personal wisdom, as well: Joanna doesn’t just help people solve problems, she helps people avoid them. But here’s what’s funny: this friend and colleague, this person whose musicianship and wisdom I’ve relied on for so long… is almost a quarter century younger than I am. And I think this is an example of one of the wonderful aspects of life as a musician: age differences don’t mean anything. What counts is what kind of person you are, and how you make music.
A Minute with Miles – a production of South Carolina Public Radio, made possible by the J.M. Smith Corporation.